


Brotherly Love

by Bofur1



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Breaking and Entering, Brother Feels, Desperation, Fan Comics, Goodbyes, Imprisonment, Life-Threatening Situations, Major Illness, Medieval Medicine, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-08
Updated: 2014-07-08
Packaged: 2018-02-08 01:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1921947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Bofur1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ori, the youngest of the Brothers Ri, has been suffering from the flu for weeks and nothing his caring brother Dori does seem to take any effect. He <em>does<em> have another caring brother, though.</em></em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Brotherly Love

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Bernuviel and her [Hobbit fan comic](http://www.deviantart.com/art/A-Hobbit-Fancomic-Brotherly-Love-370283848) on DeviantArt! Hope you like! :)

It had started with just a sore throat, Dori recalled. Ori was tucked in the bed—or at least he had been. He was thrashing around so much with his fever and stomachaches that he’d upset all the blankets covering him. Dori had to rearrange them time and again, but he was patient and spoke soothing words.

“It’s alright, Ori, you’ll be alright, I promise...It’ll pass soon, you just have to rest...” He repeated these things many times, trying to convince himself as much as Ori. While he kept his voice soft for his little brother’s hurting head, the voice in _his_ head was screaming in terror.

_What if it doesn’t pass? What if I’m just making it worse by convincing him otherwise? What if he—?_

Sinking down into the bedside chair, Dori scrubbed a hand over his face, both to keep himself awake and wipe away the few tears that were escaping. In his peripheral vision, he saw a shadow flicker in the candlelight, the only sign that Nori was standing in the doorway. Standing on weak legs, Dori turned and walked with him out into the hall.

“How is he?” Nori asked worriedly.

Knowing he couldn’t lie to his brother, Dori moaned, “As sick as he’s been every other day. Worse!”

Nori paced agitatedly, running his hands through his waist-length auburn hair which was, for once, unbraided. “We have to—to—we have to _do_ somethin’!”

“I’ve done all I can,” Dori protested miserably. “But he’s...he’s getting weaker.”

Nori stopped pacing and spun around to face him. “We have to get him some real medicine!” he declared. “We haven’t done that yet, have we? Or he’d be better by now!”

Sagging against the wall, Dori couldn’t look at his brother as he murmured, “We can’t come up with the money for medicine. Believe me, whenever I’m not by his bed, I’ve been trying, but it still isn’t enough.”

“Dor’, it’s been three weeks. He’s runnin’ out of time!” Nori cried in anguish. “We have to get the brew somehow. We can’t just let him—” He broke off abruptly, bowing his head.

Part of Dori was astonished when he heard quiet sobs from his middle brother, but the other part—the larger part at the moment—felt like crying with him. Moving forward, he gingerly placed his hands on Nori’s thin, shaking shoulders and touched foreheads with him, silently offering what comfort he could.

A young, pained voice called weakly from the bedroom. “Do—” That was all Ori got out before his coughing fit started. Reluctantly pulling away from Nori, Dori turned and rushed back into the room where Ori had begun vomiting on their last reserve of blankets.

When he came back out with messy hands and a broken heart, Dori found Nori synching his cloak at his throat and stuffing small knives and such into a satchel.

“What are you doing?” Dori asked in confusion.

Nori didn’t answer him, only looking up once from his doings with tear-bright eyes before he threw his hood over his face and went for the door.

“Nori!” Dori cried in dismay as the storm outside blustered into the house. “Where are you going?!”

+++

As he walked through the bone-chilling rain, Nori was driven by a single thought: Medicine for Ori. Right now, nothing else was allowed into his mind...except the guilt.

This was his fault. Ori could _die_ because of him. When he had returned from his latest roam, Nori hadn’t told Dori that he’d been sick the week before. Nori had had no thought that Ori, because of his young body, could catch his virus.

The sickness put him in a stable for a week, burrowing beneath the straw while he tried to break his fever. With its few blankets and many debts, the Ri brothers’ house wasn’t much better. Besides, Ori was weaker than him, untested by diseases of the world. Until now.

Finally Nori reached his destination. He halted, studying it for entrances, but it was hard to see in the storm. Thinking back to the time he had come here with Glóin, Nori recalled the inside layout and nodded pensively. He had to do this.

After scrutinizing the bolt on the window, Nori pulled out a lock pick in his satchel and inserted it. He’d done this a few times before, but having to break into a _friend’s_ house was distracting and filled him with even more guilt.

The lock gave and Nori scrambled over the sill into Óin’s home office. With purpose he strode toward one of the many shelves, squinting to see the labels on the medicine jars in the dark. The moon’s light was marred by the falling rain, so there was no brightness was to aid him.

He had to risk lighting a candle, Nori decided unenthusiastically, casting about for a match and remembering with despair that Óin and Glóin were fire-makers who didn’t trust matches. They did it the old-fashioned way with flint and steel in the fireplace.

Nori was just desperate enough to try it. Óin’s fire kit was placed on one of the higher shelves. That aggravated Nori as he tried to find something he could stand on. With Óin’s height at 4'9", he had no trouble reaching the kit, which made it perfect that children were too short and wouldn’t be tempted to play with it. But Nori was only 4'51/2", which made getting it down problematic.

Finally he found a crate he could stand on and retrieved the fire kit, lighting a fire in the hearth. He was afraid the light would wake the apothecary, who slept in the other room, but it didn’t. Nori went back to the medicine shelf and studied the labels, realizing in dismay that they were all medical terms he couldn’t understand. Taking a steeling breath, he picked out the ones he felt drawn to and put them in the satchel.

Things were going well, Nori thought. Maybe he would make it out without incident. Unfortunately, when he stood on the crate to put the kit back on the shelf, it caved in beneath his weight, sending him tumbling down with a hideous crash.

“What’s going on out there?!” Óin demanded as he burst into the room. His eyes went wide when he saw the intruder. “Nori?!”

Nori leapt to his feet and dove through the window, bolting down the road far too fast for Óin to follow. The doctor may be a friend, but there was no excuse for thievery. He would be arrested soon; he had to take the medicine back to Ori before it was too late for both of them.

+++

As he finished drying the blankets he’d washed by the fire, Dori felt free to fret about Nori. Where on earth had he gone in such a hurry and why? There were many emotions Dori felt whenever Nori slipped off on one of his jaunts, but right now the winning one was loneliness. He had been taking care of Ori as best he could these past weeks and it was doing absolutely nothing toward his benefit.

It was his fault Ori was like this. If he had worked harder, if he had directed _all_ his energies toward the fighting ring, he could have gotten the finances they needed.

But he’d run out of energies, Dori recalled desolately. He’d been weak and his weakness had been caught by Ori. Speaking of that, Dori mused in bewilderment, who had passed this virus to Ori? None of his friends had been sick recently...

Oh no.

Dori startled when he heard a scuffing sound on the stairs. Bringing himself to his feet, he slid them forward silently, walking in the stealth tactic he’d taught Nori. His stomach clenched when he saw a dripping cloak sliding over the top step. Nori had returned, but Dori was more concerned with why he’d left in the first place.

Dori followed Nori to Ori’s room but didn’t enter with him, wanting to see what exactly he was going to do.

Nori stood still beside the bedside chair, seeming to consider sitting but thinking against it. Pulling off his hood, he bent down, settling his hands on his knees as he whispered to Ori. Dori leaned forward to overhear.

“Hey, little brother. I don’t know if you can hear me, but I wanted—” Nori shook his head as though clearing it of some distraction. “I wanted to say how sorry I am. I hope this’ll make up for it.” Straightening, he unbound the flap on his satchel and went to reach in.

Dori didn’t get to see what was in it, for at that moment a boom came from downstairs, followed by the town enforcers.

“Nori,” Dwalin said with a tone of resignation, almost looking bored as he greeted Dori and apologized for the smashed front door. “Where is he?”

Dori was about to speak when Nori came down the stairs. “Here, Dwalin,” he sighed. “He told you I broke in, didn’t he?”

“Yeah,” Dwalin agreed as he clamped chains onto Nori’s outstretched wrists. “You’re under arrest...again.”

Dori whirled to look between the two of them. “What’s going on?!” he demanded in horror.

“I’m getting arrested,” Nori repeated.

Doubling his fists, Dori cried, “Nori, don’t we have enough problems?!”

“You’ll understand!” Nori called as he was dragged out the door.

Sighing disappointedly, Dori went back upstairs to Ori’s room, freezing as he saw what was in the satchel slung onto his chair.

Somehow, no matter what, he’d find a way to pay for Nori’s bail.


End file.
